Do you sell online and how did you get started

I would like to get started in the CBD business but I fear the barrier to entry may be to high for a regular joe…who here does online sales and credit card processors if any did you get approved for ? Did you locally source your product or did you start out owning a farm? Looking to hear advice from guys who started at the bottom

I started in a basement making distillate, and then quit my job as a polymer chemist to do formulation and distillation full time by partnering up with an established CBD retail/white labeling company pretty shortly after.

I’m gonna be entirely honest with you… look for something else to do in cannabis besides CBD, or a different industry entirely. Every part of the market, both retail and wholesale, is insanely saturated. Unless you have some secret sauce, crazy chemistry skills, or some other novelty, I’d bet that you’ll most likely lose money on a venture in CBD specifically.

In answer to your questions: we source things locally and from other states. Sourcing is pretty easy. We use square for our CC processing (they opened this up to CBD recently). To get started cheap-ish, try white labeling with someone that’ll do low MOQ and try to launch a brand. It’s hard to get traction and again, the space is saturated but at least you can try it out without dropping a ton of money.

I’d advise against getting into processing. Another option could be to sell retail products for an established brand and make commission. You won’t get rich doing that, but at least you won’t lose a bunch of money like a whole lot of people are right now.

Hope I didn’t ramble too much and that some of that’s useful!

Edit: by retail I mean B2C in any way, just to be clear. So online, brick and mortar, etc.

14 Likes

Dont you have to be approved my square at like 10,000 monthly sales? And I fear I may be getting into this too late from what your describing because Im also looking for a way out of my current industry or at least launch a viable business and no your not rambling your dropping gold…Sadly Im stuck with CBD since Im in Nashville and Not green states

2 Likes

I’m not sure on the revenue requirement, that could very well be true… I’m not on the finance team haha

What is your current industry? If you’re limited to hemp stuff only due to location, I’d look into sales for an established brand, partner up with someone, or a different entrepreneurial endeavor all together!

I work for a notable and established food delivery platform and I have been the owner of a floundering record label for years…Im still a young guy but I see the writing on the wall…Its either work for yourself till something catches on no matter the years or work for somebody else and make them rich as my best year are gone forever

6 Likes

You could also think of ancillary services needed in the CBD industry… packaging, labels, stuff like that. Most merchant processors will deal with ancillary companies. Think outside the box about what things are being used in the cannabis industry. @Killa12345 supplies powders and stainless stuff, and it looks like he has a pretty nice business doing that.

4 Likes

For now need something that I can reasonably foot in terms of startup capital which was why I got interested in selling cbd online

How much capital are you trying to put up?

If you’re really tight, you could try drop shipping stuff like triclamps, o-rings and other miscellaneous parts used in extraction?

2 Likes

Bro Your Exactly Right I never considered that its worth a shot since laboratory supply vendors are slow to ship anyway

1 Like

1k- at most (was looking to buy crude and make salves) 2k at the max…Revolving expenses such as monthly and yearly web site fees Im treating as a sunken cost along with my incorporate fees

I can forward you to someone to help you get set up with Square for CBD. If you declare you’re pre revenue you can still get approved as long as you have all of your other bases covered. Ideally you just start white labeling another brand so you know you have all your paperwork compliant. Very easy to set this up and turn a modest profit. You won’t be rolling in it but it’s income. I was going to make a post on here for building out turnkey e-commerce CBD/hemp stores at a low cost for people since the website part tends to get a lot of people caught up. I can draft up logos, labels, product artwork, etc. Payment integration, product listings, inventory management etc are all easy to set up if you want to learn how to do it yourself. I think it’s a good skill to learn regardless of if you choose to pursue CBD if you want to run some type of online business.

I do agree, the CBD market is extremely over saturated. Unless you think you can establish yourself in a niche community it’s not a long term income solution unless you have an edge. A different type of product/delivery altogether but that’s going to take some serious R&D. I do see opportunity for people to get in this late if they offer other legal cannabinoids like CBG, CBN, etc since those haven’t really caught on yet. But for CBD, you are going to need something very different if you want to make a living long term.

2 Likes

Im very much open to that offer and Im glad I discovered this community, Currently I have a shopify site thats basically an empty web page awaiting products and a processor so Im not that invested other than one months payment to shopify…I do know Id have to move my domain to another cart since square and shopify are enemies…any type of advice is much appreciated @stoopkid

Square has a way around that. Shoot me a PM with your email. You’ll want to get that site built out before you put in any applications though.

ive tried to help numerous people find there way in the business world. Not just cannabis. im gonna bold this so not only you see it. YOU NEED TO FOLLOW YOUR PASSION! It seems like music is your thing. Now you need to find out how to monetize that with cannabis. MUSIC and Cannabis…The first idea that pops into my head…

Cannabis Shows. There are pop up cannabis shows every day…Most of those have some sorta music talent as well playing… record labels have street teams for promotion…Cannabis shows need promoting… Its using the skills you have now and adapt it to the cannabis industry.

Please just dont think you can throw $400-3000 and create 2x success business like i have in the past 4 years. I have 7 years of college and grad school. Got recruited outta grad school to work for a multi billion dollar corporation. I was groomed by corporate america but have always been the literally biggest weed head i know. I personally dont know a single soul that smokes the amount that i do daily…I know there are people out there that smoke a lot more than me but i dont know any of them personally but i need to…:joy::rofl::joy:

People that i talk to know these hustles arent my only ones. We have 2 products coming out in 2020 that gonna turn some of these industries upside down again. Ive given some insight to other projects im working on down here but if you think i think this is gonna last forever…LOL your wrong. Im already processing my next move…

I will say if these other companies dont think at least 50 stainless welders havent contacted me this year ranging from cheap shops to ones with certified engineers on staff…they aint watchin…offering to weld in america…kinda gave a hint on my ig with the cls lid! Mjbizcon gonna be fun pricing out new products…

12 Likes

i will say elliot explained the correct way you need to bank in the cannabis industry. You shouldnt just sign up for square, paypal, shopify, any merchant services. You need to have a holding company and transfer from your soldier bank accounts to the holding company accounts. The second any banking person finds out your in the cannabis industry…your banks start to send you those letters saying we can no longer do business with you and you have 30 days to remove your money otherwise they will issue a check. Some are worse like Paypal which will hold your money for 180 for chargebacks. Amazon merchant service is 90 days for chargebacks. Shopify will just stop your processing over night…they dont hold your money unless your doing like 10k a day then they go to every other day payouts.

There are stealth bank accounts and a whole industry based on this…

9 Likes

fuckin beast mode! I’m happy for ya man, it’s been a motivating experience seeing you grow the past couple of years

1 Like

My ma might give you a run for your money. She the only person I know who can toke more than me!!!

2 Likes

im about a gram of concentrates in and a blunt of fire been up less than 2 hours. About to go ride my mountain bike which is the longest i go threw out any day of not smoking. The enails stay on all day from 5:45 to 11pm

6 Likes

Damn bro, you ain’t joking!

Don’t let @Killa12345 scare you too much, cause he really does want you to succeed.

Im a college dropout, yet here you are engaging with one of my Good Life Gang funnels… In fact, this site acts as a damn fine funnel for @Killa12345 business as well. Guess how much I charge him for that? Same exact amount I charge you. Nada. Why? Because $$$ is only one small form of capital.

The GLG is one of my side hustles that I built from scratch with very little startup money required. It was built with different forms of capital, social capital primarily. I put my relationships to work, saving money for my members, and they pay me for that service.

That’s one of my cannabis hustles. I also consult on a wide variety of topics, and I flip legal packs whenever I get the chance.

I would not recommend trying to sell CBD on the Internet right now, like they said, it’s saturated.

Don’t quit your day job, use it as security while you build up your other forms of capital. For instance, that day job is keeping the lights on while you use this forum to improve your knowledge. Knowledge is an extremely powerful form of capital because nobody can take it away from you

12 Likes